The Day of Defeat
by quillofthoth
Summary: He Who Must Not Be Named has falling, a few mourn the lost of their friends. But what does it mean for the rest of the world?


Ted rolled out of bed barely stopping himself from hitting the floor. He walked still half asleep into the kitchen, opening the cupboard he pulled out some bread and put in in the toaster, placing a kettle on the stove he sat at the table and opened his newspaper, blinking out the last the sleep from his eyes.  
The news was nothing special and indeed nothing out of the normal happened until he was spending butter over his toast, reading an article about a pet show the local library was having. When with a loud popping sound a man appeared in his kitchen.  
"Ted, Ted, It's the best news," The man said waving his arms around. He reached Ted and lifting him from his chair gave him a large tight hug.  
Ted pulled away from his brother "What is it now, Ned?" He asked "You better not make me late for work again.'" Because as strange as it would seem to many, most who knew Ted didn't even know he had a brother, Ned and Ted were indeed brothers.  
Ned was ten minutes older than Ted and was everything his parents had hoped him to be, magical, quidditch star, and popular. Ted on the other hand was the one thing they couldn't even think of a child of their's being. Ted was a squid.  
Ted and Ned won't close, Ted had been sent off to a muggle school while his brother attended Hogwarts, during the summer their parents mostly just acted like they only had the one son, and Ned spent most of the summer off with his many friends while Ted stayed home his parent unwilling to allowed him to spend more time with muggle then needed. Because of the difference in muggle and wizarding law he had been kicked out at seventeen having to live with a friend for his last year of education. He hadn't spoken to his parents since.  
Ned on the other hand was harder to get rid of. He popped in a ramdon times, lately he would be under the effects of some spell and Ted would just ring his hands until the worst of it past. Ned refused to tell him anything. Simply saying that he was safer not knowing, but Ted was not dumb. He knew that for the past eleven years the wizarding world had been fighting a war against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, the reason above all others that his parents were afraid for people to find out about their second son the squib. Ned was fighting for a world in which Ted would not have to hide.  
Ned pulled away from Ted, only to pull him back into a hug. "You-Know-Who is gone! He finished!"  
Ted pushed him away. "What on earth are you talking about? What kind of spell were you hit with?" He started running through a list in his head. If it was bad enough he have to contact someone, which there won't many ways to do if you won't magical, Ted didn't even keep an owl, lest the neabors talk.  
"No spell, Ted, he's gone!" Ned poured himself a cup of tea. Taking a drink he calmed a little. "Gone for good,"  
"How did it happen then?" Ted asked returning to spreading butter on his toast, still unsure whether or not he believe his brother or whether he should check him into St. Mungo's, but he was sure toast would clear his head.  
"You won't believe it, the Potter's family's little boy, Harry, killed him!"  
"What now?" Ted finished buttering his toast, stared at his brother "He was killed by a child?"  
"More then a child, Harry's barely over a year! You-Know-Who killed his parents and then couldn't finish the job, killed by a baby after everything!"  
"And your sure of this? Maybe one of the parents killed him? And he just managed to kill them as well?"  
"I'm telling you, Ted, He was killed by a baby!"  
Ted nodded, deciding right then and there that the entire wizarding world was crazy. He took a bite of his toast.

Ned dragged Ted off to a wizarding bar and which was packed with wizards and witches drinking and celebrating, Ned drank, found wizards to talk to and started casting spell of the silliest manner, making the silverware dance and the salt and pepper shakers sing. He announced loudy to the whole bar, "Everyone this is my brother, Ted!" The bar having no idea who they were or why the were being told this, cheered loudly for them.  
Ted turned down the drinks offered to him, knowing he'd have to get his brother home in one piece. He also felt perhaps unreasonably apart of the celebration, for although it was his kind who lost the most if Voldemort had won, they had never had anything to do with the war. Ted had always been more afraid of losing his brother than himself.  
Finally Ned was unable to walk straight, and Ted guided him out of the bar and onto the train, and as Ned told everyone around him the He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was dead and they were safe at last, Ted apologize to them and explained his brother was drunk. He pulled him back into the house and put him down on the couch. He stared at his past out brother for a mintute. This would most likely be the last he ever saw of him, after all with You-Know-Who dead, his brother would not be fighting, not being injured, not needing a place to hide. Ned simply wouldn't need him anymore.  
Ted sighed and started getting ready for work, he worked as a night newscaster. He put on his suit and was combing his hair when Ned walked into the bathroom and looked at him with burry eyes. "Can I have some water?" Ted gave up on his hair and walked into the kitchen turning on the tap to get Ned a glass of water.  
"What are you going to do next?" He asked his brother.  
"What do you mean?" Ned asked sitting down at the table.  
"You've been fighting all this time, what are you going to do now there's nothing to fight?" Ted said. Maybe that's why he felt so detacted, his brother and all these people had been fighting for so long, he, he'd been reporting the news.  
" I don't know, figured I'd get a government job, you know boring, but good."  
"Maybe you could be an auor aren't those's the wizarding police thing?"  
"Didn't score high enough on my NEWT's Transfiguratoin for that. Maybe one of the lesser offices, so long as it's not misuse of muggle artifacts. Might try for the Magical Beast's department. What will you do?"  
"Me?" Ted asked "I have a job."  
"Yeah, but you could change it, the Dark Lord is gone you could find a real job, live in a wizarding town. Be a part of things again."  
Ted was taken a back " I have a real job, Ned, I'm a reporter and I'm a good one, people like me."  
"Maybe you work for the _Prophet_ then. I bet they could firgure something out."  
"I like my work, Ned."  
"Well it will be a long way from a wizarding town for you to get to it every morning. I can't just bring you there you know."  
"Why would I be living in a wizarding town? I own a house, Ned!"  
Ned stared at him, "So you don't want to live with us, with the normal people, you want to keep hiding like a muggle?"

Ted paused, staring at him, and for the first time in his life he understood something. "Ned, I am a muggle."

Ned stared at him, "But, you're my brother. You're not a muggle. You're a squib."

"What's the difference between them, really? I can't do magic and I fit in with the muggles better then the wizards, I have a life that I'm happy with."  
"But you're my brother." Ned repeated.

"What about it?"

"I fought a war so you wouldn't need to hide! I fought a war so that we could be brothers like we were always suppose to be!"

Ted took a deep breath, understanding. "Thank you," he said, "but I'm not hiding, it's where I belong. And as for us being brothers, we are brothers, we always were, but I don't think it's that easy. We can't just beat the Dark Lord and heal all those years, but now we can take that step, why don't come over next week? We can talk."

Ned nodded slowly, "I fought a war."

"Sometimes it takes more than a war, we haven't really talked we were eleven."

" Next week, Tuesday?"

"Tuesday." Ted agreed. "Get some sleep, Ned."

"Where are you going?" Ned asked, seeming to take in his outfit for the first time.

Ted smiled at him "My job." He said as headed for the door.

Later that night Vernon Dursley was watching the news he watched as the newscaster said "And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hurt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern," Ted couldn't help but grin. "Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"

"Well,Ted," Jim began.

Vernon Dursley had his own worries on his mind, worries about owls and people in cloaks and whispers about "Harry Potter." He didn't think about the newscaster, he didn't know what fall of the Dark Lord meant for him, he didn't know that his brother was passed out on his couch, he didn't know that was the end for a few was the beginning for so many more.

 _Author's Note: The dialoge of Ted and Jim is from the first Harry Potter book pg.6. Everything else comes from my imagination. Please review._


End file.
